Recreational shallow water fishing is extremely popular in a wide variety of locations including, but not limited to, lakes, bays, coastal waters, rivers and other waterways. Many types of small and modestly sized boats are used for this activity. The fisherman typically navigates the vessel to a selected destination and then anchors the boat before starting to fish.
Securely anchoring even a small marine vessel such as a flats boat or other shallow water vessel can be quite tedious and time consuming. Usually, a pair of anchors must be separately deployed to effectively hold the boat in place and minimize drift. Conventional anchors, even those for small vessels, tend to be fairly heavy and can be difficult for some persons to drop and retrieve. Such anchors are also apt to become snagged or caught in underwater vegetation and refuse. Moreover, if targeted fish have moved from the selected fishing spot or the position of the boat otherwise needs to be changed, the two anchors must be arduously retrieved and re-dropped in a new location.
Conventional anchor lines present additional problems during inland, coastal or back bay fishing of the type described above. Often, a hooked fish may pull the fishing line such that it strikes one of the deployed anchor lines and breaks. This causes both the fish and fishing tackle to be lost and requires time consuming and aggravating replacement or repair of the lost hook and tackle.
Push poles are widely used on small boats of the type described above for maneuvering and positioning such vessels in a fairly shallow body of water. To date, however, push poles have not been used to anchor the boat for fishing or otherwise.